Shehzad Anwer of FAFEN shared raised these important points with voicepk.net based on the information gained through the recent survey conducted by FAFEN.
“The FAFEN survey was conducted in 8 industrial districts of Pakistan with a larger workforce based on women to gauge the impact of lockdown on their employment conditions.”
“The report based on 8 districts is indicative, it suggests the major issue is that the labour laws to protect workers and especially women workers regarding social benefits, contracts and welfare are not being implemented by employers by not registering the workers with public institutions. This helps them sideline the workers easily even in such conditions.”
“This whole scenario also reduces the chances of workers going to legal bodies of worker welfare for their rights.”
“Even the monitoring mechanisms in the districts are not working properly and the orders issued by the government regarding the pandemic are not working because most of the workforce is unregistered and solid data is available.”
“FAFEN survey was focused on the private sector including factories, schools, hospitals, and women on jobs of salespersons in private businesses especially clothing brands. These businesses had more trends of downsizing.”
“If the new government directives were implemented, things could have been better. Now the laid-off women workers are trying to survive by registering themselves with the government’s Ehsaas relief program.”
“The first phase of the lockdown was very strict but some ease was seen as the time passed. Now production has almost begun. The government should make the labor department proactive and the complaint mechanism needs to be introduced for the safety of workers and their survival.”
Link to report: